Multi-faceted Refractions

The NAIS annual conference has been in Chicago this past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. While I have not had the chance to physically attend this conference, it doesn’t mean that I cannot access the ideas and information shared by other attendees.

For the second year, NAIS has had designated “official’ bloggers for the conference. This year there are three:
KaTrina Wentzel, an English teacher from Mounds Park Academy, Blog – http://blogs.moundsparkacademy.org/nais2009/
Jonathan Martin, the Head-Elect of St. Gregory College Preparatory School Blog – http://21k12blog.net/
Michael Obel-Omia, Director of the Upper School at the University School in Cleveland, OH.  Blog – http://publiusrex.wordpress.com/

This year, they have done a phenomenal job covering both the pre-conference global summit on Wednesday and the various sessions on Thursday and Friday.

In addition the sanctioned bloggers, there are many other bloggers who have been covering the conference. Two of them have been live blogging  If you are reading this after NAIS is over, you can view the contents of their live blogs by reading the posts as they occurred. The two live bloggers are:

Sarah Hanawald – Greenboro Day School Blog – http://gdsmstech.blogspot.com/
Jason Ramsdon – Blog – http://www.jasonramsden.com/home/index.php/liveblogs

There are various other bloggers, such as Antonio Viva, Peter Gow, and Liz Davis who are attending and have been posting on their blogs.

One other way to connect to attendees is via Twitter. Since may not know about Twitter or don’t understand Twitter, there is an easy way to search all of the information without having to create an account. If you go to the following web site on Summize.com and enter in the search term, #nais09, (please include the numeral sign, also called a hash tag), or  click on the following link, http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23nais09,  you will be able to see all of the announcements, comments from sessions, and links from conference attendees who are sharing via Twitter.

I have found the conference to be rich and full of information. I have made new friends in which I am exchanging ideas and different practices. I have been given access to handouts and other resources from these members of my professional learning network.

I enjoy attending conferences, but there are sometimes that it is impossible to attend. Attending virtually is the next best thing.

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In celebrations of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the Smithsonian Institution is conducting a series of online presentations Wednesday, February 4th and Thursday, Febraury 5th. The session are (all times CST):

Wednesday
9:00 a.m. – Lincoln’s Deathbed: Images of a Martyred President
10:00 a.m. – Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life
1:00 p.m. – Stamp Stories: Philatelic Images of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War
2:00 p.m. – One Life: The Mask of Abraham Lincoln
3:00 p.m. – One Life: Classroom Applications

Thursday
10:00 a.m. – Lincoln’s Air Force
1:00 pm. – Public and Private Photographs During the Civil War
2:00 p.m. – The Enduring Emancipation: From President Lincoln to President Obama

The sessions are being recorded, so you can watch in the future.

For more information, visit the Smithsonian Lincoln Conference Site (http://www.smithsonianconferences.org/)

When you are in the middle of the forest, sometimes you forget to look around and take a look at the various new projects which have germinated around you. I know that I spend time spreading and cultivating ideas and it exciting when things begin to take root. I want to share a few of the projects and with you.

1st Grade Blog and VoiceThread

Just over a year ago, to support a social studies unit on Community, our first grade teachers created a blog (Getting to Know Us, Getting to Know You) to begin to connect our first graders with others around the world. The connections have slowly and steadily grown. This year, they have added VoiceThread Ed into their toolkit, and their latest post, A Tour of Winnetka and North Shore Country Day School, shows what can be done by creative and motivated teachers and students. Come join them on their journey.

3rd Grade Blogging Unit

Amy Kenyon, one of our 3rd Grade teachers, who blogs professionally at Life in the Lower School, presented her classroom blog at the Northern Illinois Computer Educator’s January Mini-Conference. Her notes from the conference provides great resources, including their class blog, The View From 3rd Grade. She did an excellent job inspring and sharing with others.

Art at North Shore

The art faculty have begun to share highlights of student work on the blog, Art at North Shore.  This is a great medium to share the various different projects our students undertake each year. I look forward to watching this project.

Head of School Blog

While not quite ready to be completely unveiled, our Head of School has dipped his toes into the Web 2.0 world by creating a blog to share his thoughts and stories. Once some of the kinks have been worked out, I will be highlighting this project.

Again, while you may think that your efforts are falling on deaf ears, it often takes more care and nurturing than we are willing to wait to see the first shoots grow from our efforts. But once they take root, watch out, things grow quickly.

I have been asked by Will DeLamater at the TeacherPlaces Book Clubs to lead the February discussion of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. For the first post, I elected to focus the discussion around how we at schools provide the 10,000 hours that Gladwell asserts are needed for to new teachers and to students to gain mastery of a subject to become expert.

New Teachers
To get us started, I want to take a look at the assertion that exists in chapter 2, the 10,000 Hour rule. When we take a look at our own schools, do we allow for individuals to gain the 10,000 hours of experience necessary to master a skill? With the looming teaching shortage, will we have enough teachers who will have invested enough time to develop into skilled practitioners?

When we take a look at new teachers coming out of college, do we provide them the opportunity to gain the experience necessary to become a Master Teacher. If we assume that they will spend:

• 10 hours a day (8 hours at school, 2 hours at home)for 180 school days
• 6 hours per weekend for 36 weeks out of the year
• 8 hours a day for 20 days (4 weeks) in the summer

This means that a new teacher will accumulate 2136 hours per year honing their craft. This means that it will take five years for a new teacher to exceed the 10,000 hours that it takes to master a skill. But nearly 50% of new teachers will leave before the completion of five years. Have we built a sustainable system to retain and build teachers to gain the 10,000 hours before they give up?

Students
Now, if we turn our attention to students, do we provide enough opportunities to develop their skills? In terms of reading and writing, we provide ample opportunities, since these skills can be and are developed across the curriculum. But what about math and science instruction? In many schools, these topics are covered in isolation. Starting in Lower Schools, if a student spends:

• one 45 minute block per day plus 20 minutes of homework in grades 1-5
• one 45 minute block per day plus 40 minutes of homework in grades 6-8
• one 50 minute block plus 60 minutes of homework in grades 9-10

then before they begin to tackle the more advanced sciences or math classes, they will have only spent a little more than 2,000 hours of the 10,000 hours needed to master the skills. Additionally in many schools, these numbers may be a bit higher than what is experienced.

So where do we find the time to nurture students to provide the 8000 hours of additional training needed? Opportunities in the summer? At home, with enrichment activities led by parents?

I encourage you to come to the conversation and share your views. I look forward to the discussions.